Sunday, February 25, 2018

Nearly nothing is quite as preposterous as the
self-righteous moral preening of the Hollywood elites. As we anxiously await
this year’s Oscar awards presentation, those of us who still have the poor
sense to watch the spectacle gird our loins awaiting the non-stop barrage of
jokes, insults and put-downs… all directed at the Republican president and his
party. This year we also expect an outpouring of outrage ... directed against the NRA.

In other terms, you know what is going to happen. You know
what will be said. You know who will be showered with ridicule. Certainly, you can find a better way to spend an evening.

Anyway, the moral paragons and dimwitted high school dropouts who inhabit Tinseltown are not up
in arms against male sexual predators. They have become militants and
activists, mobilized by the #MeToo movement. Even a wonderful actress like
Jennifer Lawrence has said that she would give up acting for a year in order to
“save democracy.” If that’s the best that democracy can do, it’s time to give
up. Since Lawrence has gained well-deserved fame for pretending to be someone
she is not, she would do better not to pop the bubble of illusion.

Anyway, USA Today surveyed Hollywood women and asked how
many of them had been sexually assaulted or harassed while on the job. A reasonable
question, don’t you think? They sent out the survey questionnaire, so the
results were self-selected. That being said, USA Today was shocked and
surprised to discover that 94% of actresses had suffered
some form of sexual harassment.

I will note that the woke politically correct crowd in
Hollywood no longer calls female actors… actresses. It calls them actors, the
better to bring gender neuterdom to their world. Yet another absurd gesture
toward equality, it had little effect on predatory Hollywood directors and
producers. All of whom, I promise you, were using the politically correct word
while insisting that young women could never work in Hollywood unless they were
willing to audition in the nude. What a surprise!

USA Today reports:

The
first number you see is 94% — and your eyes pop with incredulity.

But
it's true: Almost every one of
hundreds of women questioned in an exclusive survey by USA TODAY say they
have experienced some form of sexual harassment or assault during their careers
in Hollywood….

It's
been deeply disturbing reading, but so far the powerful stories of accusers
outnumber plain, hard facts about the extent of the problem in Tinseltown.
Until now.

Did these women, who had had their consciousness raised by
the constant public discussion of sexual harassment, fight back? No, they did
not. When they did, nothing changed anyway.

Only
one in four women reported these experiences to anyone because of fear of
personal or professional backlash or retaliation. This reporting rate holds
true for all forms of misconduct addressed in the survey, including being
forced to do something sexual.

Of
those who did report their experiences, most say reporting did not help
them; only 28% say their workplace situation improved after reporting.

Of course, we have been having a national conversation about
workplace sexual harassment for nearly three decades now. Apparently, all it
has done is give men ideas and allow women to believe that it is the norm:

One
surprising finding: Even though America has been arguing about workplace sexual
harassment ever since the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas Supreme Court hearings in
1991, more than one-third of women surveyed weren't even sure that what
happened to them was sexual harassment.

Without doing any further research, I can assure you that
the men perpetrating these assaults were proud feminists. I promise you that they all voted for Hillary Clinton. After all, they were merely following the
example set by Bubba himself. And they knew that if they had been caught,
Hillary would defend them to the death against the “vast right wing conspiracy.”

Jack, you're a week out of date. Maybe saying no to million dollar contracts is harder than you think?http://ew.com/movies/2018/02/19/jennifer-lawrence-rep-clarifies-comments-acting-break/... a representative for Lawrence exclusively tells EW that she will return to work when one of several projects in development is ready to go.

As a person who really enjoys good movies, and lately I have seen very few, I was looking forward to seeing Lawrence not emote all over the screen. I have watched a number of films with Lawrence as the main female lead and it was difficult to see her as a real actress. Please Ms Lawrence take a sabbatical a very long one and maybe a real actress would rise to the top.Unfortunately we are going to be subjected to another awards show for a small group of people to tell us how great the are. Sadly there seems to be an inverse relationship especially in Hollywood. Most of it utter garbage and an assault on the senses. I watched a film with Samuel Jackson as the main lead and the "N" word was utilized so many times I began not to hear it. Ugly stuff!

Stuart: Without doing any further research, I can assure you that the men perpetrating these assaults were proud feminists.

Now I know why research is necessary, and that gut knowledge is often wrong. Rather gut knowledge exposes our own biases.

I suppose what Stuart means here is more like "virtue signalling", suggesting men who rise to positions of power sufficiently to abuse others without fear of retribution have honed a public imagine, and in Hollywood, virtue-signalling means saying things liberals want to hear, and presuming proud feminism is on that list.

I'm not sure this sort of survey is going to get the knowledge we seek. First we have 87% have experienced "unwanted sexual comments, jokes or gestures." but that could mean anything and shouldn't be grouped.

And that only 1/4 report unwanted comments is problematic - did 3/4 really not report out of fear or simple pragmatism? A more important question than "reporting" is "speaking up". If someone does something you dislike, you should speak up, and if you don't, and claim you don't because you're afraid of backlash, then no one needs to oppress you, since you're doing this to yourself.

I know that many persons in different kinds of jobs and professions maintain personal integrity and that includes those in Hollywood. I understand why people who aren't for sale are beyond your comprehension.